(Photo credit score: Michael Chow/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK)
DALLAS — The New York Yankees needed to carry Juan Soto again however the group finally noticed him depart for a historic 15-year, $765 million cope with the crosstown Mets.
“Ownership and the front office, I think, did everything we could to make it happen,” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone mentioned throughout the winter conferences on Tuesday. “It just didn’t happen. But, as I told these guys yesterday, that’s sports.”
Soto’s departure is surprising in some ways. The Yankees made an aggressive push to carry him again and, given their storied historical past, they do not lose gamers they need typically.
It additionally leaves a large gap of their lineup as Soto and Aaron Judge had been one of the crucial harmful duos in years. Soto batted .288 with 41 residence runs and 109 RBIs final season.
It turned out to be his solely season in pinstripes after the Yankees acquired him and Trent Grisham from the San Diego Padres for 5 gamers, realizing Soto would change into an unrestricted free agent after one yr.
“Ultimately, Juan earned the right to be in the position that he’s in, and he made a decision that he felt like was best,” Boone mentioned. “We went into this eyes extensive open. It was a yr in the past after we had been sitting right here, and I keep in mind making the deal on the winter conferences. We knew there was no ensures of something shifting ahead. I feel as a lot because it harm to make the cope with a few of the gamers that we misplaced, trying again, I really feel prefer it was the fitting factor to do and served us effectively. He had a tremendous season clearly with us.
“It kind of hurts in the moment, but when you live in the business and you live in the sport — again, it is sports, it doesn’t always go your way. It’s now an opportunity for us to — and our expectation is to still go out and build and put together a great team to go compete for a championship again next year. That doesn’t stop.”
–Drew Davison, Field Level Media